I am a gamer. This blog is about games. 99% focus is on roleplaying games but sometimes I post thoughts near the gaming.
Vampires, space pirates, lamenting princesses and mutants in the future all welcome!

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Sunday, December 8, 2013

As some of you have noticed I haven't been very active in blogging, following Google+, in forums... I haven't been active internet user for a while.

There are some reasons too boring to share in my blog.

When the time is right, I'll get more active again. I miss RPG related stuff. Reading news, cool ideas, other gamers' stories and find out new cool product. And naturally playing and creating myself too.

I don't know what's new and cool at the moment. But I'll find out soon thanks to active internet communities (big thanks for G+ in general).

I'll start getting back "to business" by reading Marcus Graham's Bleake Rebellion (more of this possibly sooner than later with review and stuff). The guy's blog is: http://thehouselesshills.blogspot.co.uk/

Even without anything important or interesting to write about, it feels really good to write here in my blog.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

If it spits some flammable and that can be ignited, it's a home-made flamethrower. But those thingies might be risky to use. It's different to show it for laughs than actually use in combat situations.

These home-made flamethrower rules are for Mutant Future (and other old-school systems of your choice).

*Damage is special. The dice are "explosive". If the highest result is rolled (4) roll the die again and add the new result to previous. Also save versus Poison or Death or catch in fire! d4 damage every round as long as the fire is put out or a number 1 is rolled on damage die.

**If the first attack succesfully hits an opponent, next rounds are easier to hit. +1 to attack roll every continuous round up to +5 modifier.

***Everything between this range and the target aimed at should roll Save versus Poison or Death or suffer damage.

****Ten charges/rounds of fuel. But there's some risks to use. With natural 1 on attack roll the wielder of this weapon catches fire and suffers damage 4d4 multiplied by the remaining charges! With the roll of natural 20 the flamethrower malfunctions releasing all the remaining fuel at once. Damage multiplier = charges remaining.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

New monster for Mutant Future.Mauriainen, the antmen
Before world went gonzo, apocalyptic and toxic mauriainen were ordinary, small black ants. Originally harmless but annoying and covetous for sweets they are now changed.

Half a size of a human torso on a big dog sized ant body they protect their nests and gather sweets. Not the most notorious warriors, but their force is many.

Mauriainen are great architects but their technology level is next to nothing. For weapons they use spear like pointy sticks or metal bars.

Notes: These critters were something my player encountered in my Mutant Future campaign. Player character needed sweets and junkfood and mauriainen nest is your best bet to find those. Only problem is, that it's a nest crawling with these defending critters. Luckily, the player character had a home-made flame thrower... But that's another topic!

Saturday, July 27, 2013

My summer break in internet use started in early summer. The last lightning strike of one of the first thunder storms burned my modem and part of my computer's motherboard. I had some difficulties to get a new modem (and computer parts, but that's another story) but fortunately one kind soul and fellow gamer friend helped me out.

But when I got internet running after a small break I decided that I will reduce my computer time this summer. And that's what I did. Maybe I should have announced it. There were times when I was thinking is my blog dead now? But no, it isn't. From this day I start blogging again - or continue it.

So, welcome back. I am happy to see old faces commenting and sharing my posts and I also welcome all the new faces!

Projects Burned

Well, it wasn't only parts of my motherboard what got burned. But also my USB hard-drive. With all my documents and projects (and personal photos and videos). So my projects? Yeah. Nothing left! There's something on Google Drive (should use cloud services to storage important stuff) but nothing major.

So basically everything I've done is lost. I have to start again!

Gosh.

Well, anyways. I had too many projects open anyways so now I will start just one and focus on it. There are few options to choose from what I already had to be re-written or I might start a new one. I'll just have to decide what I want to do first.

Mutant Future Forever

Still playing Mutant Future. It is awesome. One of the best games I've played. Well, there's no setting and the rules are simple but it's really super inspiring and easy to use. I love it. If you don't know what Mutant Future is, go to Goblinoid Games and download free no-art PDF of the full game. Then you can buy it from Drivethru. Go now!

Musing Vampires Not So Masqueraded

I liked Vampire: the Masquerade a lot. And I've played a lot of it. But now the whole game seems so boring. After Mutant Future madness storytelling horror sounds super lame. But I've been thinking about making Vampire more... mythical or dark fairytalish. More vampires. Darker cities. More gothic and punk. More blood, chains, leather and laces. Like 1800 steampunk meets 2020 cyberpunk with Kult (the rpg).

Or maybe I'd use Requiem for that? New game (for me) new tales.

I just need to buy WoD core book, because I don't own it. I have free pdf they shared ages ago printed, but it sucks to use. If I just could get one WoD core for extremely cheap... Well well gotta search for it.

Oh And Google+ And What's Going On

For me Google+ rpg people and communities have been extremely entertaining and informative (thank you G+ rpg people, I love you guys). But haven't been using it for a while. So I don't know what's going on. What's new, what's trending, what you guys have been writing. So now I got tons of things to do to update my social circle wisdom.

Jim Raggi Slow Down!

Dear James, stop publishing so many awesome items. I cannot afford it all. At the moment, anything of it. At the moment one product with limited print of 666 is stressing me out. Because I fucking want it. I want it badly. And I cannot buy it!

Searching your store is both mind tingling and frustrating.

Keep selling those items and -umh well- publishing new ones. I'll buy it all when I got extra cash.

And I like your products in print. PDF are cool, but dead-wood looks so cool on my shelf.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Shields might be handy AC boosters. But as armors are almost unbreakable what about shields? They might break.

When character or a creature with a shield is hit with natural 20 result, there's a change that the shield breaks.

4 in 6 change for small shields and bucklers
3 in 6 change for medium and wooden shields
2 in 6 change for large and enforced shields
1 in 6 change for tower and metal shields

If there are no different types of shields in game use fifty-fifty (3-in-6) or what is most logical.

Also for flavor if an enemy attack is strong enough (lots of damage with a single blow or several attacks in a row for example) the shield might break. Use shield's change to break or x-in-6 change what suits best.

Sometimes natural 20 isn't necessarily needed at all. If a dragon stomps the character with a shield rolling well but not well enough to hit or rolls ridiculously bad damage, maybe it was the shield what saved character this time breaking into splinters in process!

In my opinion shields can be much more flavor and even character's trademark than just a static AC bonus.

Friday, May 10, 2013

For some reason every game we play goes into story and character involved in it. Basically the loot, dungeons and combat aren't in a focus when we play. It's fun and fits our game style but there's a flaw. In games like Mutant Future you don't get experience points so your character stays the same even though she experiences a lot of things during her adventures.

I've tried to fix this with free experience. So in addition to monster exp and treasure exp I give other experience points when I feel that character has learned something from her experiences in the game world. But that doesn't always work well and the character still stays forever a newb (unless I give tons of experience points).

So me and my player came up with a conclusion.

We run adventure modules with the same character sometimes. Basically when we aren't up to focusing the campaign her character is on but we still want to play something more lighthearted. That's when we take a campaign module and put the character there ignoring her current storyline. And when the adventure module is over we can either start new one or continue the campaign where ever it last time we played ended.

But I ruled, that the character cannot carry over the loot from these modules to the main game, only the experience points. We initially thought that those experience points replace all the experience points she is lacking from our game style.

Then I thought that she could have a separate inventory for these "alternative" games. So what she gains in those alternative games she can either cash in for experience points or keep to use in other modules for an advance.

Basically she has now 2-in-1 character. Same character sheet for both the campaign we play and for the adventure modules I run but separate inventories for both.

That didn't make sense campaign-wise at all, but hey, it was meant to be all for experience points for her character (in Mutant Future experience point requirements for next level are brutally high after few levels).

Then it hit me! One campaign session I suddenly decided to include the last module session as a flashback style dream. Her character is an android, so what adventure modules we play as separate games have possibly happened in her "previous life". She is re-programmed after all.

So now with this one character we play story oriented campaign and dungeon oriented separate modules from the campaign, but those both are related to same character's campaign. This has worked really well. Just have to make sure that all the equipment don't get mixed up and it goes super well.

I've thought maybe I include this style to other traditional styled games (exp is loot and kill). But what if character isn't a reprogrammed android? Maybe it's previous lives then?

Friday, April 19, 2013

My player went through the Brain lasher powered portal in Mine of the Brain Lashers. I had to make somethng beyond the portal in one day. This is what I did.

The adventure is compatible with Mutant Future, Gamma World and other similar science fantasy post-apocalyptic games. With minor tweaks you can naturally run it with any system or setting.Basically this is one of the first adventures I've "published". And this I made 100% for myself and my player but thought that why not share it? Sharing is caring, right?So enjoy!And if you got time please share your comments.

These Trogs are the most powerful and strongest Trogs. They are encountered rarely. Although only slightly tougher than Trog Brutes, Trog Savages have powerful melee attacks. They appear to have reddish skin color.

1: One of the character feels stinging pain in his back. Closer inspection reveals a treasure map tattooed on his back.

2: Some fae are tricky pranksters. Characters overslept in the fae magic. They wake up 6d6 decades later.

3: When they wake up for an unknown reason they have swapped bodies. So now that perky little Elven archer lady has to live in his fellow barbarian's body until they find a way to get things back as they were.

4: An owl accompanies the party after the night. It doesn't seem to be bothered by daylight hours at all and will follow the party in distance. This owl is actually super intelligent. He might be their guardian, just making sure they don't mess up anything the owl is guarding or it might be a spy.

5: All the magic-users spells are switched in his spell book. Randomly determine the new spells he has now. If there is no magic-user in party, all items of a random character are switched to something else. Dagger to spoon, backpack to foundation cream, rope to warhammer...

7: Little zombie baby has crawled to sleep with them. They woke up in its horrible demanding scream. Instead of BRAAAAIIINS the zombie baby yells MOOOMMMAAAAA.

8: The rainstorm is horrible and everything is flooding. Now they aren't resting on solid ground but in a fast-flowing and dangerous river. Loosing equipment and staying unharmed is hard.

9: Panty-bandits raid the party. Instead of being interested in valuables they are after the panties. They are extremely nifty in stealing panties without alerting the victim. But someone might wake up his pants down...

10: Earth trembles but it is not an earthquake. It's actually the pack of vegetarian dinosaurs running for their lives not to be eaten by [T-Rex, pack of velociraptors, or similar carnivorous predator]. And characters' camp is on their path. Grab what you can and take cover or be mushed.

11: Characters are dreaming of an unicorn. What a nice dream. Except it ends as goblins slaughter it and bathe in its blood, cook its meat and make a relic of its horn. When characters wake up they hear a magical horsey shreak in distance.

12: Horrible insects have laid their eggs on characters' skins. Itching, papules, rash, fever ensured. Most horrible thing is when the eggs hatch and under your skin hundreds of maggots crawl eating their way out.

13: A shooting star so bright that characters even if eyes closed are blinded. Those who sleep for 1d4 days. Those who are eyes open (guarding the camp for example) 3d6 days.

14: What ever was surrounding the characters (woods, rocks, barn) has moved 1000ft. away when they slept. It's actually intelligent lifeform(s) what didn't like characters in/near it.

15: Where they sleep it's an old cemetery buried in soil, moss, undergrowth, built over... Try to sleep in ghost activity!

16: When they wake up there's duplicates of the party. Same equipment, same face, same personality. Who's who when both know they are originals!

17: One of the party members has died in unknown reasons. Now he's a ghost following his living fellow members. Does he enjoy his new ghastly benefices or are they trying to find out a way to get him back into the books of the living?

18: Drank or not all feel hungover. 3 penalty for rolls for next 1d8 hours. The reason is unknown, maybe they just didn't sleep well.

19: The moss grows really fast. So fast it has covered the characters and their equipment. It is extremely painful to take the moss off by ripping it* so there has to be another solution. But it might get some reactions walking around as a mossy figure.
*As much moss must be ripped off as character has CON. 2d8 damage per equivalent of one CON point moss ripped away.

20: What a pleasant night. You had dreams of all the adventures in the past and adventures to become. Gain enough experience points for your next level!

He wrote this in his blog so I contributed:Tobie Abad was inspired to create his own "why they sleep" table. Check his out because he came up with some awesome stuff! If we had a couple more gamers in on this, we could forge a collaborative d100 "why they sleep" random table. Who's in?

Thursday, April 18, 2013

I love Mutant Future for its simplicity. It is easy to understand for the players and simple to run for the Referee. Still playing Fallout 3 video game I cannot but think about adding something from it to MF. Because as simple as MF is it is super easy to modify.

Would I use Falloutified version of Mutant Future in my gaming table? I don't know. The reason is I love how simple Mutant Future is so why should I add things to make it more complicated? Just for fun? Maybe I would use Fallout styled system for Fallout styled setting (recreating Fallout game for tabletop) but otherwise I'd just stick with basic Mutant Future.

Still, here are some thoughts and changes.

Note: If I would use these ideas these would need serious re-writing and field testing. These are just thoughts how to convert some aspects of Fallout system to Mutant Future. I say again: I love Mutant Future for its simplicity. That's the point of MF. To be simple and fun!

Sometimes making extra rules, modifications, more options it just ruins the fun of the game. You forget why the game was fun when you focus on rules, extra rules and special rules. As long as you just get to roll some dice in fun adventures it's usually enough. The older I get the quicker I want rules resolution to be. I don't want to read days after days hundreds of pages of rules and mechanics. I want to grab a game, read it a hour or two and be ready to go!

ABILITIES
I think the core six abilities work well enough. You could replace those with Fallout abilities (get rid of the Luck). First is MF second is replacement from Fallout.

See, no difference. Except with Willpower and Perception. Does Mutant Future need Perception? Not necessarily. Willpower is essential for mental attacks though. In Fallout 3 there are seven abilities so for Falloutified Mutant Future the abilities might be:

SKILLS
In Fallout 3 there are skills what Mutant Future lacks (roll d20 under attribute to success). This needs no modification, only adding a feature. Only tricky thing is combat oriented skills. In Mutant Future your to-hit is determined by your level (+ modifier from STR or DEX to roll). So this needs some work. More about this in "Combat" section of this post.

So, the skills you got are (derived skill in brackets):

Barter (CHA): Proficiency of trading and haggling.

Big Guns (END): Proficiency at using "unortodox weaponry"

Energy Weapons (PER): Proficiency at using energy-based weapons

Explosives (PER): Proficiency at using explosive weaponry

Lockpick (PER): Proficiency at picking locks

Medicine (INT): Proficiency at using medical tools and drugs

Melee Weapons (STR): Proficiency at using melee weapons

Repair (INT): Proficiency at repairing items

Science (INT): Proficiency at hacking terminals

Small Guns (AGI): Proficiency at using conventional firearms

Sneak (AGI): Proficiency at remaining undetected and stealing

Speech (CHA): Proficiency at persuading others

Unarmed (END): Proficiency at unarmed fighting

As you can see, most of the things in skills are covered in Mutant Future. Combat and technological tasks. Sneaking, lockpicking etc. can be covered with roll under ability. Speech? Roleplay it and use reaction modifier... Does Mutant Future need skills? Not at all. But if your player wants more character development the skills are nice touch and an extra option to go for.

SKILLS IN CHARACTER CREATION

Fallout 3 has pain-in-the-ass mathematics in its rules. So calculating skills is a bitch. The formula is:

2 + Stat x 2) + [Luck / 2]

If you want to calculate those initiative values like that... you're welcome. I'd just cut some corners and just make initiative value what the deliered ability is. So if your Intelligence is 16 your initiative values of Medicine, Repair and Science are 16. I think that's close enough.

So your first step is to calculate or just write down the initiative skill values. After that you "tag" three skills. The skills you "tag" get +15.

That's it.

LEVEL ADVANCEMENT AND EXPERIENCE
In Mutant Future when you level up you roll dice to see in what you get better. Get rid of that. You now got some skill points to share and a perk. Here's a list of perks in Fallout 3:http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_perks
Choose one perk per level. See the requirements. You need to modify those and some perks fit video game better than a tabletop game.

At a level up you also can distribute 10 (13 if well educated perk) + INT / 2 skill points.

You get XP and other character advancements from:

Killing enemies. Check xp chart in Mutant Future

Loot. Check MF for details

Quests. This is new. Mutant Future gives you exp from killing and looting, now additional option is questing! Depending on the quest you'll get 10-150 exp. 150 should be earthmoving! Grande finale of big campaign. Quest experience points should be treat for players.

Quest awards. Some quests might award characters with special abilities or skill bonuses. You might consider some special quest related perks to be given. But don't give these too much. These should be extra special treats!

COMBAT
This needs thinking. In Fallout you combat with skills. In Mutant Future with character level. How to make this more Fallout? Or less.

I haven't thought this enough so here's just suggestions. Don't know how the game balance works compared to both originals. You could either:

a) Ditch the combat skills and keep non-combat skills. Character now gets INT / 2 skill points per level (+3 if well educated) as there are less skills involved.

b) All characters attack as 1st levels. Always. Add +1 to d20 roll for every full 10 of combat skill. So if you got Big Guns 27 you roll d20 + 2 when shooting.

AC will be the same. Armor + AC modifier.

If you go full skill based combat you need to work things out. To hit opponent is equal to your skill as %. So if your combat skill is 69 you roll d100 under 69 to hit. Armor is now DR (damage reduce). So if you hit, roll damage and reduce armor of it. Minimum damage is always 1.

The huge converting problem in this method is AC in Mutant Future. The smaller the number is the better the AC is! So you'd have to convert all armors and monster ACs... You could make a convertion list though. It might be:

CRITICALS AND BOTCHES
Using d20 if you roll 1 it's a botch. Things don't just fail but go really wrong. Also if you are using an item it's condition grade is decreased by 1. Using d100 results 1-5 are a botch.

Using d20 if you roll 20 it's a critical success. Things go really well (see combat for combat rolls).

Saving throws are not affected by criticals and botches. Only skill uses are.

RADIATION
In Mutant Future radiation damages you. In Fallout 3 there's points for radiation and effects based on those points in a scale up to 1000 and beyond. Do you want to book keep it? Be my quest.

If you don't want to keep Mutant Future radiation rules replace it with this:

Characters have Radiation gauge of 100. They take radiation like in Mutant Future rules but instead of taking damage they add their radiation gauge. When they get enough radiation there's some effects:

The scale is good but the effects are dull. I'd modify those. It's too much bookkeeping to calculate attributes. I'd say that END based are hitpoint loss. AGI is to AC, STR is to damage).

Also it could affect skill use. Every 1 point of attribute loss by radiation is -10% to skills.

So if you are suffering Advanced radiation poisoning your END based skills are at -20% and AGI based skills at -10%.

You can heal radiation with special cyrine or treatment from doctor who has capabilities to treat radiation.

INVENTORY

I think Mutant Future inventory covers weapons well enough. Also other equipment are well covered. The items you need are chems. There are some in Mutant Future and most important are RadAway and Rad-X.

There's rules for technology rolls in Mutant Future. Use them to discover new technological properties of special equipment. When character has identified the item he can use skill to use it (Science for computers for example). Repair skill is different.

To repair a broken item roll your repair skill. Modify the repair skill by Complexity class of the item:

Complexity class 1: No mod.

Complexity class 2: Repair skill / 2

Complexity class 3: Repair skill / 3

Roll modified repair skill. If d100 result is under you successfully repair the item. If not, you don't repair it.

Some items might be repaired without tools, some need tools and some spare parts. It's up to Referee to decide what the repairing needs.

Usually it might be a good idea to use a similar item to repair another. Take the condition grade of the item you repair and the condition grade of the item you use as spare parts. You improve the condition grade of the repaired item by the condition grade of spare part item's condition grade / 2 (minimum 1).

So repairing condition grade 4 assault rifle with condition grade 3 assault rifle you get +1 (3 / 2 = 1,5 = 1) to the weapon being repaired. The spare parts item will be lost. No condition grade can rise higher than 5.

Optional rule:

The maximum condition grade you can repair an item is based on your Repair skill.

Condition Grade 1: Repair skill 1-20

Condition Grade 2: Repair skill 21-40

Condition Grade 3: Repair skill 41-60

Condition Grade 4: 61-80

Condition Grade 5: Repair skill 90-100

CONDITION GRADE

Items wear down and you need to repair them (above rules). Use Mutant Future condition grades. Every time you botch your roll using an item or in armors get hit by critical attack the item's condition grade is decreased. When the condition grade is 0 the item is nonfunctional and must be repaired.

WHAT ELSE?

Are there any other rules and system conversions needed to make Mutant Future like Fallout?

Now playing again, and wanted combat more lethal. In Mutant Future characters have more HP than in your average old-school game. Starting HP is HD x STA (roll HD equal your Stamina value). You don't get extra HP every level though, it's random what you get when you level up...

Anyways, this would work with any other game also using D20 (and why not any other game what works somehow similarly).

Critical Hits

When you roll highest result on your damage die (for example 1d8 damage result 8) roll again and add together. Also known as "explosive die".

If you roll same number you need to hit (Thac0 stuff), you get x2 damage. This is a critical hit. So if you need 13 to hit your opponent, you hit him good. Weapon damage 1d8+1 would be 2d8+2.

Natural 20 always hits and in addition you get an extra attack to same opponent!

Sneak Attack From The Behind To Slice Throat
AC 9 (unarmored), roll to hit but D20 x2. If the result is high enough (double what needed) the opponent is dead. Bloody but silent. If hit 2x damage. If a miss 1x damage. If you roll natural 1 sucks! Guard notices you!

Great Quality Sniper Rifle
If you can aim and your target is not aware of you, you either:Get +4 to d20 roll or x2 damage (sniper rifle damage is d12 so roll 2d12 if you choose damage bonus).

Friday, April 5, 2013

Sometimes I have played with a thought that if roleplaying games had a save game feature. Kinda like fate (or-what-ever) points you earn as a group and can use to save game. Then you can kick-in-the-door approach, see what's beneath, die and "load game" for a better approach (for example).

Or before epic battle you use save game. Just because if the dice screw the epic battle (TPK) you can re-try it.

Just an idea I have had sometimes when I play video games. But what do you think?

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Depending on a type of a scrap gun use weapon statistics in MF rulebook. But there are some changes:

Damage
Damage is one die type lower (for example 1d10 would be 1d8)Range
Range is only half of normalWeight
Weight is 50% heavier than normalShots
It depends on the gun, but rarely self made guns have normal clip size. Roll for ammo capability % (1d10x10).

EXTRA RULE: UNRELIABLE
When rolling natural 1 on d20 when shooting or 1 on damage die, roll the following table for unreliable result.

1. Weapon jams. Repair as in technology roll rules.
2. Weapon breaks into parts. Cannot be used and must be literally assembled again from a scratch.
3. Doesn't shoot. Use 1 turn to remove wasted bullet.
4. Fires on random target - enemy or friend.
5. Accidentally fires twice. Roll again to hit -5 to d20.
6. Explodes. Weapon damage x2 on self. Cannot be repaired, parts and bullets destroyed.

Friday, March 1, 2013

This bear sized monster is a hybrid of crab and a badger. It's intelligence is closer to crustacean than a mammal. If they are aggressive:
a) you are in their territory
b) they are hungry
c) you are on their way

Thursday, February 28, 2013

So, you have a map? Let's make stuff in there! (There are many of these in basic sets of rules in different games, but this is for fun).

Roll d10
1. It's empty. Or is it? Roll again. If the result is "1" again, it really is empty! If the result is something else, the room looks like empty, but there's [the result] hidden from sight.

2-5. Some wandering monsters. Roll d6: "1" those are weaker than normal (-1d4 HD). "2-5" they are as written. "6" they are stronger (+1d4) HD.

6-7. Trap or traps! 15 (1-3 on d20)% (one of the) trap(s) is save versus death or die. There is 1 trap 75% or 1d4 traps 25%.

8. Treasure! Roll treasure table or decide. There's 10% change that the treasure or part of it is magical (25% change it is bad) item, scrolls, whatnot.

9. Special! This room is somehow special. How it is special is up to you. Kitchen, guard barracks, treasury room are not special. Teleport to Mars, altered gravity, weird science are special. In special room roll again to see what else is in there. If the roll result is "9" special again, the room is DOUBLE-SPECIAL (or infinitely frikkin' special if you roll 10 and keep rolling special rooms). DOUBLE+ SPECIAL room might be a WEIRD SCIENCE ROOM IN MARS (no explanation needed, it's that special).

10. Roll twice and combine (if you roll lots of "10"s you get a room with lots of stuff in).

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

I am thinkin to create this booklet for my use where are only the basic d20 rules (retro) including both ascending and descending AC (for maximum compability). There would be no classes, spells, items, monsters or anything else. Those would be sourcebooks or taken from a game I run that time.

The point is to create small booklet with all the rules and easy to add own houserules. So every time I take another OSR game I can use my own rules booklet and just take the fluff and material (those spells, classes and whatnot).

I think the rules would be based on a hybrid of Labyrinth Lord and LoTFP, because LL is clear dealing with descending AC and LotFP is clear with ascending AC.

The base of these rules would be from BLUEHOLME (Holmes edition clone) because it's super clear and simple and it would be easy to add all those additional rules. Also BLUEHOLME is a small book, so the core of this universal retro system would be fast to create.

It would be also easy to add my house rules there. Just write rules BTB but add little boxes of alternative rules. That way I can easily see how the rules are BTB and the other options I invent or gather all around the internet. If I find something superior I can replace official rules altogether (although I think I keep the old one just in case and reference).

Also when I read "yet another retro-clone" rules most of it is the same basic mechanics, some things are better but some things are better in another game. So it would be painless to just add the parts to my game what I like as optional rules. That way my booklet could have several different optional rules for the same thing to choose from.

This would be kinda my personal rules Cyclopedia.

When I look at OSR games I find that actual rules don't take that much space. Character creation (without classes) and core mechanics (adventuring, combat, task resolution) take only a small portion when classes, spells, items, monsters etc. take the biggest part of the page count. How much are the core rules in pages? 20 maximum? Own additions and house rules don't add that much.

The process would be:1. Take rules material from BLUEHOLME2. Add and modify rules from LL3. Add and modify rules from LoTFP4. Add and modify house-rules when necessaryAlso if there are rules variants I can easily do this:To-hit-rollLabyrinth Lordroll d20 and check the tableLoTFP roll d20 over ACHouse-rule open fortune cookie and improviseSo basically when I need a rule I just find it from the booklet and choose what suits best for the game I am running. One book three set of rules for (almost) everything?Also this core retro rules booklet would be faithful for its sources and my house-rules would only be grey boxes.Currently I am running to different systems and I got house-rules literally everywhere (G+, blog, notepad, in my head, napkins) so it would be super convenient to put all this information in one place. Also it wouldn't matter what game I run when all the rules are in the same booklet. Only thing I need from different games is fluff rules and material (those classes, spells, mutations, items, monsters etc.).So basically it doesn't matter do I run Mutant Future or LotFP, the rules can be found for these slightly different games from the same place. Only thing where I need the actual game's rule book is the setting mechanics (again classes, spells etc.).It would work like GURPS. When you run GURPS (I use my rules booklet) the core book has the rules. All the additional material, genre, setting etc. I want to run is in GURPS sourcebooks (in my case Labyrinth Lord, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, LotFP, Mutant Future, Mutants&Masterminds etc.).Also if I like feats I could easily add a section how feats work and use D&D3 list for available feats. Only make the rules simplier.Also own setting material would be easy to work with. I already have core rules written down, so I can just write what I want. I can write a booklet about Wild West, take my booklet to run it and choose whether I use LotFP or LL for it (or house rules).Also creating core classes would be easy for fantasy. Write class fluff and take rules to work with LL and LotFP. For scifi, wild west, post-apo, 20's gangsters I just need to rename and re-skin those classes.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

This is a simple tool and not a complete set to create a settlement from a scratch to ready-to-play. I suggest you use Vornheim to flesh out the settlement. It's also cheap at LotFP store.

Decide How Big The Settlement Is
This is simple and basically based on population. You should already have an idea how populated the area is, how big the biggest cities are and how many smaller settlements are around. You are working with a fantasy setting, so don't think logically. In some areas there might be tens of huge cities but some outbacks are more rural than conquered.

Remember also, that the settlements are not there to serve characters. They have a purpose of their own.

System To Create Settlements
These are example settlements. The bigger the settlement is more there are important services. Roll dice based on settlements to see how many important services and noteworthy factions there are. You might want to use Vornheim for details, but can also decide these details yourself.

For example a village has 1d4 important services and 1d2 noteworthy factions. 1d4 result of 2 and I decide there's a hunter who only doesn't sell some meat and fur (at high price, +25% normal) and arrows (+50% price). Also a small and lousy inn is present, but at least it's affortable. 1d2 noteworthy factions result 1 tells, that there's a priest (Cleric lvl 1).
For services, npc's and quick city layouts (and much more) there are easy tools in Vornheim Kit. You can also use your fantasy city generation of choice here if you don't want to decide everything by yourself.Settlement Hierarchy

Isolated dwellling - Only few buildings with families. Probably farmers. No resources to buy, maybe only cheap bed and meal.

Hamlet - Tiny population of people around 50 to 100 and few buildings. Only very few (if any) services. Important services 1d3-1, Noteworthy faction 1d3-1.

Village - Villages generally don't have many services. A village has a population of 100-500. Important services 1d4, Noteworthy factions 1d2.

Town - Towns have better general services and population of 500-1000. Important services d4+2, Noteworthy factions 1d3.

Large town - Large towns have good resources and more variety in services. Also more factions are present. Population of a large town is 1000-2500. Important services 2d6+2, Noteworthy factions 2d4.

City - Cities are big and organized usually heavily walled and well guarded. From cities high status person(s) or factions rule the areas of before mentioned settlements. Population of a city is 2500-5000. Important services 4d6+4, Noteworthy factions 3d4.

Large city - Large cities are well known and big melting pots of services, cultures, passerby's, trading and also slums. Large cities are important in realms and there are not many of those, possibly only one of a kind. Population is 5000-10000. Important services 4d6+10, Noteworthy factions 2d8+4.

Metropolis - Only few metrololises are known to exist. Those are few and crowded and literally almost anything can be found within. Usually factions rule their own districts and districts within a metropolis feel and look like their own cities in culture, style and customs. Population is 10000+ but usually unknown. Important services 1d4 per a block, 2d6 in a neighborhood, 4d6+10 in a sub-city, Noteworthy factions 3d4 in a sub-city.

Creating Examples:
Girgush's Hole (isolated settlement). Two houses next to a mountain. They have small field to feed the five workers who dig coal from the mines. Once per week they deliver coal to a trading crossroads. They are very suspicious for the strangers but warm and fun company in late evening if the trust is gained.

Three Trees (hamlet). The hamlet has its name from three big oaks in the middle of the housings. They farm their food and have few heads of livestock. There are no services available, but adventures can rest their head in barn. There is a village chief, but he is not actively trying to lead the hamlet. He just monitors that everything is all right.

Mornonger (village). Mornonger is a small fishing village with some traffic but it is not near any important trading routes or in a good place for a successful harbor activity. Most of the food they fish they eat and the rest they trade. There is a small inn with extraordinary seafood dishes, small workshop what crafts everything needed from nets to woodcrafts and a high guard tower where they keep homing pigeons. The villagers are well known fishermen among the people who are aware of them and they get better price of fish than usually.

Skalvirg (town). Isolated northern town what has grown when people from surrounding settlements have slowly moved together to form a place where survival is easier. They have inn with great variety of beers, skillful craftsmen (4 professions) and barracks with a good stock of weapons. The warriors are well known (25% of the population) and sometimes do high quality mercenary jobs. Their leader Skalk the Bald is a retired warrior who is rumored to have killed a giant all by himself.

Anterloin (city). Anterloin is a big city in desert. It is exotic place to travel and many seek experiences there. Slavery is common and the city is well known for their high quality slaves. There are many services available (12) including a spa build over a small oasis, weaponsmith creating excelent weapons of strange minerals (+250% price, +1 weapons) dug from the stones outside the city, and a gladiator arena where all fights are performed bare handed. There are 12 factions. Slavers' guild, priests of the sun god, guild of the dead (mummifiers), Thieves of the sand guild, prince Halmahar and his court only few to mention.

Droggolyr (large city) is the capital of dwarven mountains dug deep over the aeons. Some say that it was a creation of dwarven god expanded by generations. It is also told that from Droggolyr you can enter any dwarven settlement via tunnels. Only dwarves can enter freely and others are treated suspiciously. There are several services to support the city and main factions are from the total 17: The Stonediggers, Craftsmen of the Silver, Trollslayers, Priests of the Stone, Dwarven Trader's Guild, Explorers of the Dungeon, Highbeard the King.

Monday, February 25, 2013

THIS POST SUCKS... IT'S TL;DR AND THE IDEA ISN'T AS CLEAR AS IN THE FORUM POST I MADE AT LOTFP.But why don't I just delete this? This is a reminder for self how not to suck.

Elves cast spells like Magic-Users but I want a difference there. If you are familiar with D&D 3e Elves would be more like Sorcerer class in their magic using abilities, but not quite.

This is the idea I am thinking. Magic-Users will be by the book, but Elves will be different. This is how Elven magic works.

Background
Elves have magical abilities. Not studied and learned like Magic-Users with their arcane knowledge, researches and spell books. Elven magic is innate power and more powerful Elf is more powerful his magic is.

Elven magic is chaotic in nature and no Elf can possibly know what kind of powers he will conjure later. Magic is Elves birthright but the nature of it is unknown until discovered.

Every level when Elf gains new spell slots roll randomly for appropriate spell level new spell slots are gained. Those are the spells Elf can cast. He memorizes spells normally by meditation.

For example if Elf can memorize two one level spells and one second level spell per day that's also the number of spells Elf knows. Roll randomly for two first level spells and one second level spells, those are the spells Elf knows. Elf can memorize spells as Magic-User, for example taking same first level spell twice.

Does this make Elves less capable of Magic-Users? Yes, as they don't have a spell book they can write new spells when they find those. But Elves can still use scrolls, wands and staves normally. But this makes Elves different from Magic-Users as Elves are also capable as Fighters.

The trick is that when Elf casts a memorized spell roll d20 under his level-spell level (1 minimum). If the result is a success, the spell is not forgotten and can be re-cast.

Example:Tremwel 10th level Elf casts 2nd level spell. He rolls d20 against his level - spell level (8). If the die result is 1-8 he doesn't forget the spell and can re-cast it later.
But as Elven magic is chaotic in nature there's 5% change (result 20) that something goes wrong and the spell effect backfires. For example Sleep spell affects the Elf himself or the fireball blows in front of the Elf damaging him.

It is player's choice to cast spell with this risk. Otherwise Elf cast his spell normally without a die roll and forgets it. There's 5% risk when trying to cast without forgetting the spell, that something goes wrong. Elven magic is chaotic in nature and wild so trying to "tame" the spell when casting it (trying not to forget it) is risky business.

Other option to make spell casting more wild and chaotic is to ignore Elf's level altogether and just roll d20. If the result is same or less than spell level, it fires back to the caster.

Example:Anwylen 20th level Elf casts 9th level spell trying not to forget it in the process to be able to cast the same spell later. There's 9 in 20 change that the spell backfires harming the casting Elf.
_______________________________________

This is something I try to work out to not make Elven casters weaker and trying to make Elven magic more wilder and chaotic. I am not yet sure how to do it, but this is one option.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

AH! Let me explain to you what HP really represent, rather than just how many hits from a sword you can take:

Really, they're about how well you can avoid critical damage. The fighter with 200 hp? Look, that d8 damage from a sword isn't about him just being so tough and manly that he just ignores the stab wound, it's that he's so tough, manly, and good at not getting stabbed in the face that he moves out of the way of most of the blow, so that you just cut him a little bit. A peasant who has never held a sword? Yeah, you're going to stick him real good, right in his liver. Dead and gone, real quick like.

That is what having a high HP count does--you, without need for additional rolling, basically avoid most of the blow that otherwise did connect with your armor. You get a bruise or scrape instead of a broken skull or pierced lung because you moved at the last instant, or gave with the blow and reduced the impact, or whatever. The point is, your skill at combat is what saved your life from that blow.

In my opinion that explanation is one of the best for HP I've read this far. What do you think?

Friday, February 8, 2013

When character's HP reaches 0 or beyond roll save vs. death (or equivalent) - negative HP to roll. If the character fails he dies. If successes wait for the next hit and roll again with new negative HP modifier.

Example: Character's save is 15 and orc hits him gutting him to -2 HP. Player rolls d20 and get's a result of 17. The negative HP is decreased from the roll, so the final result is 15. Close call.A couple of turns later the character is hit again with 4 points of damage, so his total HP is now -6. Player rolls d20 to save and his result is 17 again, but the character dies now (17 - HP -6 = 11).

OPTION

Don't want to roll save versus? No problem. Roll against CON. Negative HP is decreased from CON and you try to roll below your CON to survive.

Example:Character's CON is 15 and he suffers damage to -3 HP. Player rolls d20 against CON 15-3=12 and gets a result of 8. He survives the blow.Next turn character is hit again and now his total HP is at -8 HP. Player rolls d20 against his modified CON at 7 and gets a result of 11. The character dies.MONSTERSTo keep combat fast don't use this rule for normal monsters and goons. They die at 0 HP (or are incapacitated). For "boss monsters" and other significant opponents you can use this rule though.Example:Character party encounters 6 hobgoblins and their shaman leader. 6 ordinary hobgoblins die normally at 0 HP but Referee wants the shaman leader to be a little tougher and meaningful opponent so he uses this rule.If the game doesn't list monster CON use its save versus regardless of which version of this rule you use with player character. Or make up the CON depending on opponent's size, racial toughness in description, HD and how hard you want it to be.

_____________________________________I like the death and dismemberment chart a lot, but this is a bit simpler. The point is that character's are not in perfect health at 1 HP and die whether the damage is 1 or 100 points. More damage you suffer beyond 0 HP more likely you die.

There can be lots of optional rules for negative HP effects but I still like to keep things simpler. It's just that I like the idea that characters with positive hit points of any are in good enough condition but beyond 0 they start to get weaker and weaker.

This optional rule can be used with games that use D20 to hit and higher is better.

When attack roll is low enough there's a change that an opponent can do an immediate counter attack. When counter attack happens roll normally to hit. The change of counter attack depends on character's level or monster's HD.

The number listed for counter attack change is the die result attacker rolls.

Counter attack cannot be counter attacked.

Example: Fighter's counter attack change is 1-3. If opponent's attack roll's result is 1-3 he doesn't only miss but the Fighter gets immediately an attack against him.

CHARACTERS
Counter attack is different for character classes. If the character class in your game is not listed use the closest one.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Hey! Thaumiel must be running on fumes since he asked me to write an artocle for Cradle of Rabies. Sorry, can't say no since I've got no readers of my own (don't got blog either, but who cares about blogs without readers anyway, eh?)

At first I'm gonna talk a little about myself.

Now that we got that covered, I'll talk about my project Space Jerusalem (not to be mistaken with the band you've also never heard of). I hail from Mentzer's red box and D&D fantasy has always been close to my life. After all, life is just a Dungeon with T-junctions, leading to new T-junctions. AD&D, 3rd edition and lvl 19 eldritch knight who could deal average of 500 damage to any target. Which she could do outside her turn. Which was nice, because it took more than hour to wait for one to come after 19. level cleric, wizard and druid had grinded throught their... microcosmic... experiences.

Well every gamer has this childhood dream of that super epic bosscharacter, and after we got what we asked for, we started to make new questions. Like, what if we make a game that would also like work and go somewhere. That is what we asked and we started to tweak with modern d20 originally, eventually evolving into our natural 20 system. I'm not going to talk about our game design approach, our goals and how we reached them only to ask why?. Because. Srsly. Who hasn't been there and done that? I started making my own versions of board games when I was like 10, but my son makes up new rules for Kimble on the way to his quite inevitable victory. So it's in the blood and if you are interested in Again an Another System Made by Someone Else you would care, but it's also in your blood that you won't, so I will supress the fact that the Will to Tell Everyone about Our Great System is too.

So what I'm going to tell you is a short story related to gaming, making a game, having a dream and then waking up.

I liked VT's. That stands for Virtual Tabletops. We tried some, but settled to use Maptool. (You really need to know what VT's are to get this, so if you don't you've got to have a google moment NOW). Virtuals have many virtues over actual tabletops, but in the end it became clear that current tools available were only able to vaguely emulate the experience as it should be. I'm not even talking about bugs and similar glitches, but the sheer clumsines of how things are handled on every level of the gaming process, not just during the actual play event. It's like using rocks and buttons instead of abacus for running an complicated set of calculation. Or like trying to run a combat for 20. level party in 3. edition D&D. I mean, doing those things over phone while driving a taxi in Bombay. Or more accurately, doing those things by twitching your left eyelid for communication while otherwise lying helplessly in your hospital bed.

But still! I'm not here to rant how VT's suck. I'm here to tell that I knew that all along, but I wanted to see what could be done with them. And much could that far surpassed limits of battlemats and miniatures (I'll only hint Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V). In the end, it was just not important. At least to me, it happened that every achievement and method of pushing the limits of VT's further away also took a bit from fun. It became too much work and no play for me too.

I mean, what does it matter, if your method of play may now handle 100's of orcs instead of previous record of 10? I suppose it's better if the system is streamlined and your way of handling maps and enemy tokens improves, but what is the point if it only shows in increased numbers? Only epicness achieved will be in downtime. Hereby I declare the Law of Epic Round Durations:

"Every game expands to the limits of it's system"

Then you get players drooling over their motionless chest, idly staring into a silent emptiness. Or perhaps those fortunate enough to have a handheld will entertain themselves with a game of tetris. In any case very few have the willpower to force themselves to watch interestingly as the game lags forward (It seems still, when you watch at it, but looking after an hour you'll notice it's moved!)

Well I don't rly know if that rule is correct. I do know I like writing them though.

Playing the game is just one point of view to the whole process. GM's view of running the game is another. Preparing adventure, updating rules and surfing for hot elf babes make up others. Theres even more, but the point is that role playing experience is not limited or included into what happens during the actual play event. You will notice the difference between one-shots and campaign style of play comes in no small part from this extracurricular sphere of hard to grasp influence.

I'm not actually going deeper into that one either! Whew, dodged that one.

Anyway, as a VT oriented GM I was thinking about a community sharing adventures, rules and related material openly over an site, because, it would have been possible. That was what Space Jerusalem was actually about. Now this aint news. There are lots of sites for sharing stuff. Obsidian portal comes into mind. You can also find lots of stuff available from maptool forums (such as total pathfinder rules script package). I'm sure things are no different on any of the 10's of VT's forum communities. I think roll 20 VT even has some programmed features for sharing links.

Apart from similar idea, those other sites actually had a community as well!

"When building a community, start by already having a community"

Lesson is you can't build a community. One could say it builds itself, but in reality there even isn't one. There are only people who are getting something out of something (or if they are not, they usually go looking for it from somewhere else). In Finnish RPG scene there hasn't been very succesfull sharing communities, but those who are almost worth mentioning formed around some other service, namely forums. The current placeholder would be pelilauta.fi

, and they also offer some wiki and file sharing services.

Our Space-jerusalem.com had forums, wiki and even our game system freely available, but no one outside our regular gaming group ever became interested in what we had to offer apart from community we didn't have, forums for only 3 active people (but we were active!), system that was supposed to be played in a way that wasn't yet technically even possible (and not particularly good in even that, mind you). In a nutshell, we didn't have anything anyone could hope to get, so everyone moved away. If the cheese moved, I didn't notice. It never stopped by Space Jerusalem.

We made our mistakes, and all in all, those other sites and services are making tons of coold stuff WHILE ALSO having those awesome communities built around them, which is like the whole point of actually building anything for those communities to begin with. But apart from having those enthusiast communities, they are actually doing the same FAIL in the product that we did. The product still sucks. (Actually it sucks more than a vacuum; we were far further into the emptiness of space and still it didn't stop sucking). You know this when you try out that Pathfinder module for Maptools, or try to play any miniatures heavy scenario in any medium without actual things to move around the actual map. Even if using a tool would handle that part, using the tool would probably render some other tool unusable, forcing you to cope with some subpar replacement feature, such as, say, using one mouse for 4 players to move tokens around a map, instead of being physically able to fart on the general direction of a real dinner table. Or instead of speaking, you would have to resort using a chat. And don't get me started about dicerollers. Rolling a dice _cannot_ be simulated with current technology. One needs his trusty dice that are as old as the superstitious belief of the right wrist motion required to score the needed 20 on a critical saving throw. (well I did. Get me started.) Its emotional stuff. Satan may have invented dice, but we were too happy with them so he had to invent dicerollers. All in the name of fairness, objectiveness and easy of useness in a game that's supposed to be about fun in a world of poor UI's (another credit of Satan's btw). Here's Law of the Bones:

"Dice rollers totally take control out of players hands!"

(And give it to Satan!)Don't repeat your or anyone else's mistakes. Don't build communities, kingdoms, cults or empires. Do stuff, but don't wail if you fail. Some Sales guy said once, that the good guys are not paid well for good sales. They are being paid because they handle bad sales well. And as even the best salesman in the world can't force a sale (Mafia insurance salesmen count as an exception), neither can you force a success in anything you strive for. That's a turf of God (Unless you are Satan). But if you are not Satan, do something worth getting done. Don't do it for achievements (Satan should've a gold medal for this!), they would only keep in coming as wave after wave of zerglings become obliterated under your Siege Tank fire.

Welcome!

Welcome to Cradle of Rabies, blog about pen & paper roleplaying games. Here I talk about roleplaying and roleplaying games from my point of view in different topics. This blog is not focused in any particular game and posts are about things what I am interested in currently.

Feel free to leave a comment. They are awesome to read and give me new information and interesting points of view. That's why there is comment section, for you to participate.

I hope your visit was pleasant and I hope you drop by again! Also if you think your blog or individual post is interesting to me or have something to say or share, leave me a message to thaumielnerub [a] gmail [dot] com.